Would you agree to have a microchip implanted into your body? That’s the question that Microsoft and a group of pharmaceutical companies are asking.
Microsoft is spearheading an initiative called “ID2020,” a program aimed at giving every human on the planet a digital ID, like a fingerprint, in order to keep everyone connected.
WHAT IS ID2020?
The ID2020 Alliance is an initiative helmed by Bill Gates and aimed at “getting Digital IDs right.” According to the official ID2020 site, current methods of official identification are “archaic” and not accessible by everyone. As the Alliance claims, the current methods of digital identification are easy to spoof, and proper online ID certification hasn’t become a reality just yet.
As companies are only now defining what a proper, official online ID looks like, ID2020 seeks to help define what a “good” digital ID is. Gates and the Board of the Alliance have a “Certification Mark” that they award to companies and technologies that meet the criteria of being “good” digital ID tech.
WHAT’S THE CONNECTION TO VACCINATIONS?
The idea behind some of ID2020’s more controversial technologies is a digital ID that can be implanted into someone in chip form. Ostensibly, this is to help homeless people or people in developing countries by giving them access to blockchain-powered identification.
In theory, the practice would have people receiving free vaccinations through the Bill Gates foundation if they have an ID chip implant. In turn, these implants would carry encrypted, blockchain-backed data that allow for easy access to services you can’t normally get without an ID.
It could also help social workers and researchers keep up with who is up-to-date on their vaccinations.
WHY HAS THIS GOT SOME PEOPLE WORRIED?
Some people are concerned that Bill Gates, one of the richest people on the planet, is working with a private Alliance of companies to create a digital ID standard. Between the power he wields financially through Microsoft and politically via his charitable organization, it is a bit unnerving to think of him microchipping every citizen.
However, it seems the program isn’t as nefarious as it sounds at first. A blockchain ID aimed at empowering the most impoverished and the homeless doesn’t sound like a bad thing at all to us!
That said, others are concerned about the idea of being tracked in general. Is this something you’d ever agree to have done?
